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All the latest happenings at Learn Watercolour
Tuesday 20th December Another year almost over, and it's time to wish all painters are very Happy Christmas and an inspiring New Year! My 2012 programme of courses and workshops is taking shape now, with new events being added, including an opportunity to sketch in the charming North Norfolk village of Binham, which has some very imposing ruins of an ancient priory. Also in the programme is another oil painting workshop, as the two that I ran this year porved to be amazingly popular. I may well add further to my programme as time goes by, so keep an eye on my Events page which has details of everything I do. Happy Painting! Friday 14th September 2011 Autumn is almost here, and it's time for me to start another round of my regular weekly courses at West Norfolk Arts Centre, Castle Rising. Most of the groups are full, or nearly full, so I have almost 60 students with their brushes at the ready! It's always a pleasure to see familiar faces, with some people returning for many terms, but it's also nice to see newcomers who are starting on the great journey to becoming an artist. A journey that never ends, certainly for me, as there's always something new to learn! Friday 13th May 2011 Last weekend marked my first ever oil painting workshop, and it was a great success with fourteen particpants happily wallowing in paint and turps! Several people have indicated that they would like another oil workshop and I am working on a date and venue for that at the moment. If you are interested please contact me, because I need a reasonable number to make it viable. For this second workshop there will again be the option of having all materials supplied, which is ideal for those who have not used the medium before. However, for those who already have their own oil paints there will be a reduced price option without supplied materials. The choice is yours, and if you have some materials but not others I can tailor the options accordingly. Meanwhile, back in the world of watercolour, I have booked Ringstead Village Hall for a sketching and pen and wash workshop, which will take place on Saturday and Sunday 3rd - 4th September. One of the most charming villages in this part of Norfolk, with a wealth of sketching subjects. Weather permitting, we will also spend some time on the nearby coast, at either Thornham or Brancaster. Please contact me as soon as possible if you would like to reserve a space on either the oils or the sketching weekends. I'm sure we'll have a great time! Friday 18th March 2011 Yesterday marked the end of the current term of my weekly art courses at West Norfolk Arts Centre. I would like to thank all my students for being such a great group, and wish them every success in their artwork during the coming weeks and months. The weekly courses will re-start on October 6th and you can see full details of that, and all my other courses and activities, on the Events page of this website. Happy Painting! Friday 4th March 2011 During the week I went up to Leeds to see the exhibition there by one of my watercolour heroes - Ashley Jackson. Only a dozen works, but they were truly inspiring and show how an artist can make a fabulous painting out of very little - the moor, the sky, and bags of atmosphere. The exhibition is at Temple Newsam House, a wonderful stately home near Leeds, until early May. Well worth a look if you are in the area. www.leeds.gov.uk/templenewsamhouse Friday 25th February 2011 You can now follow me on Twitter, by going to Twitter.com/stephenmartyn Tomorrow, Saturday, I'm off to the village of Fornham All Saints, near Bury St Edmunds, to run a day workshop for the group there. I'm looking to my visit as it's the first time I've been to Fornham, and I'm sure we'll have a good day of watercolour. Saturday 19th February 2011
On the 7th and 8th May, I'll be sharing my enthusiasm for oils in a beginners workshop, entitled "Oh to paint in oils!". The response has been amazing and the workshop is fully booked, but if you are interested there may well be a further date later in the summer, perhaps June or July. Contact me for more information. The start of my new blog It seems to be a fashionable thing these days to roll up any news items into a blog, so I've decided to join the bandwagon. Every week I'll try and write a short item about what I'm doing, paintings I'm working on, and forthcoming tuition activities. I will keep them short and to the point, and hopefully make them interesting enough that you'll want to keep reading them. To make that as easy as possible, I shall be posting extracts from the blog on Facebook and Twitter, and I'll put links here to those sites in the next few days. Do keep in touch! My teaching workshops, demonstrations and courses continue, with the spring and Summer being exceptionally busy. All the details of events still to come are on my events page, but among other activities there will be the popular Hilderscapes weekend at West Norfolk Arts Centre, the last weekend in July. I love Rowland Hilder's work, he was truly a master of watercolour and a marvellous draughtsman too. Many of his ideas and techniques can be simply applied to our own paintings in watercolour, so this workshop is suitable for both early stage watercolourists and those with more developed skills. I'll also be tutoring plenty of workshops and demonstrations for various art groups and societies, so if you would like me to visit your own group you can find more information here. Although I do a lot of teaching, I still love to paint, and I welcome commissions for all landscape based subjects. So if there is a scene that is special to you, or someone you know, do discuss it with me. It doesn’t have to be Norfolk! I have painted views of the UK, Europe, and across the globe. Speaking of which, time to get my brushes out! Enjoy art in all its forms, and I look forward to meeting many of you, somewhere along the artist's trail. Outdoor sketching! At most of my weekend workshops we manage to spend at least some time working outside directly from nature. However, it's not always easy, as this cartoon from Jane Ford shows. Jane was a participant on the Springtime Sketchbook workshop in April 2008, when we had to contend with some rather windy and chilly conditions, which she captured perfectly. Thanks Jane!
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This afternoon I've been working away in my studio here in Heacham. Unusually for me, I haven't been working in watercolour, but in oils. My late father, Arnold Martyn, was a keen amateur oil painter in his later years, so i've decided to try working more in oils myself, and I must say I'm enjoying it. Quite different to watercolour in terms of brushwork, but I'm using exactly the same colours that I always use plus a little white paint to lighten the tone when required. There's a lot of folklore surrounding oil painting, but I rather think it's not as difficult as some people make out.